Mini Pumpkin Brown Butter Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Icing

There are so many amazing bloggers who inspire me. I see their work and their creativity and wish I could grow up to be just like them, minus the growing up part. One of those bloggers is Heather Baird over at SprinkleBakes. Her work is simply gorgeous. One of her latest creations, Pumpkin Brown Butter Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing, caught my eye the minute I saw the post. So, I borrowed it. Well, I changed it a bit, too.

Mine are mini cupcakes because I have a terrible issue with food guilt. Eating an entire regular-sized cupcake will keep me up all night with eater’s remorse, so I try to make minis whenever possible. The only things I changed in Heather’s cake recipe are the size of the cupcake and the oven temp. I did a little research and discovered that the best and easiest way to go from a regular cup to a mini cup is to lower the oven temperature by 15 to 20 degrees. Who knew? I set mine for 330 degrees and they came out perfect after 18 – 20 minutes.

The other change I made was the icing flavor. Not that I wouldn’t have loved to taste the cinnamon icing she suggests, because believe you me I would. It’s just that I was craving caramel and I happened to have this can of Nestle’s Dulce de Leche that I have been saving for just the right occasion. Well this was definitely it! Enjoy.

Dulce de Leche Icing

2 sticks of softened butter

1/2 cup Dulce de Leche

1 tsp vanilla

1 box of Confectioner’s sugar

(1 tsp cinnamon, if desired, as an homage to the original recipe)

Blend all of the ingredients in order until smooth.

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